Romain Pilon What's in The Way is The Way

Johannes Ockeghem & Pierre de La Rue - Requiem - Diabolus in Musica & Antoine Guerber (2018) {Bayard Musique 308 475.2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 310 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Bayard Musique | 308 475.2
Classical / Medieval / Renaissance / Early Music / Sacred / Polyphony

This is not a groundbreaking album, but it's a very enjoyable interpretation of two long-time favorites: I can't say as I've ever fetishized the Requiem genre the way that some may have, but there's no arguing with the quality of this music. Ockeghem's reputation remains unchallenged today, and the Requiem is one of his most austere & enduring works. The transition from an earlier style to more elaborate counterpoint of the period also seems to mark something of the medieval twilight…. La Rue has been the most generally compelling composer of the next generation for me, and his Requiem is a virtuoso tour-de-force of low lows & high highs, not to mention the contrapuntal intricacy that La Rue developed to a level of subtlety like no one else….

Speaking in general about Porpora, and in particular his Ariadne, in 1910 the French musicographer Romain Rolland wrote ""Histor didn't do him justice. He was fit to compete with Handel, and the comparison between Handel's Ariadne and Porpora's, staged a few weeks apart, is not at all in favour of the former. Handel's music is elegant; but doesn't have the strength of certain arias in Porpora's Ariadne in Naxos. These arias' form has an excessively classical regularity; but powerful inspiration circulates through these Roman temples."" The common place of Porpora, a singing teacher ready to subordinate everything to his pupils' voices, must be reflected upon in the light of the vocal writing in these pages: in which belcanto flourishes are generally administered abundantly and in each case almost always justified by musial and expressive reasons and immersed in the character's specific dimension.

Sounds of the Seventies was a 38-volume series issued by Time-Life during the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, spotlighting pop music of the 1970s. Much like Time-Life's other series chronicling popular music, volumes in the "Sounds of the Seventies" series covered a specific time period, including individual years in some volumes, and different parts of the decade (for instance, the early 1970s) in others; in addition, some volumes covered specific trends, such as music popular on album-oriented rock stations on the FM band. Each volume was issued on either compact disc, cassette or (with volumes issued prior to 1991) vinyl record.

The timeless Way out West established Sonny Rollins as jazz's top tenor saxophonist (at least until John Coltrane surpassed him the following year). Joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, Rollins is heard at one of his peaks on such pieces as "I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)," his own "Way out West," "There Is No Greater Love," and "Come, Gone" (a fast stomp based on "After You've Gone")…

The timeless Way out West established Sonny Rollins as jazz's top tenor saxophonist (at least until John Coltrane surpassed him the following year). Joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, Rollins is heard at one of his peaks on such pieces as "I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)," his own "Way out West," "There Is No Greater Love," and "Come, Gone" (a fast stomp based on "After You've Gone"). The William Claxton photo of Rollins wearing Western gear (and holding his tenor) in the desert is also a classic. This re-release appends three bonus tracks, all of them alternate takes.

The timeless Way out West established Sonny Rollins as jazz's top tenor saxophonist (at least until John Coltrane surpassed him the following year). Joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, Rollins is heard at one of his peaks on such pieces as "I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)," his own "Way out West," "There Is No Greater Love," and "Come, Gone" (a fast stomp based on "After You've Gone"). The William Claxton photo of Rollins wearing Western gear (and holding his tenor) in the desert is also a classic. This re-release appends three bonus tracks, all of them alternate takes.